Taking advantage of bar-coding opportunities

Despite being heavily used in industries such as manufacturing, commercial sales, publishing, advertising, and shipping, the use of bar-code technology in healthcare remains relatively scarce. At last count, just over one third (34.5%) of hospitals have adopted bar-code scanning(1). While the numbers continue to rise, it remains surprising that so few have chosen to take the leap. This is especially true when you consider that the FDA issued their initial barcode package requirements for manufacturers and repackagers back in 2004.

Organizations, like the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), are keen on the use of bar-code medication administration (BCMA) and have developed guidelines encouraging pharmacies to adopt the practice. According to ASHP “use of the BCMA system should be universal within the health system. To the fullest extent feasible, every patient, care provider, and medication should receive a unique identifier, and that identifier should be used not only to verify care prescribed for a patient but also to document every significant step in the medication-use process.”(2) ASHP has gone as far as to include the use of bar-code technology in their consensus recommendations from the Pharmacy Practice Model Summit in November 2010.

The slow pace of BCMA adoption is difficult to understand. Reasons cited for slow adoption include barriers to change, difficulties with implementation and lack of both financial and labor resources. With that said, it is important to understand that the use of barcode technology inside a hospital has not only demonstrated value in decreasing medication errors and increasing patient safety(3,4,5) , but has shown the potential to save healthcare systems millions of dollars as well.(6)

None of the information above is new, and I’ve posted about the use of barcode technology many times before. However it’s not every day that an event comes along that focuses exclusively on the use of bar-code technology at the point of care. The event I speak of is the 2012 unSUMMIT, which will be held in Anaheim later this year. I’ve been to the last two unSUMMITs and each time, came away knowing more than I did before attending.

The unSUMMIT provides healthcare professionals a unique opportunity to speak with a variety of healthcare systems in various stages of bar-code technology use. You’ll find healthcare systems from small to large, users from beginner to expert, and professionals from all areas of healthcare, including nursing, pharmacy and IT, all gathered in one place to discuss nothing but the use of bar-code technology in healthcare. So if you’re looking for information on bar-code technology, it’s definitely worth your time.

I hope to see you in Anaheim in May at the unSUMMIT.

The complete 2012 unSUMMIT brochure can be found here (PDF).

References

1. Pedersen CA, Schneider PJ, Scheckelhoff DJ. ASHP national survey of pharmacy practice in hospital settings: Prescribing and transcribing – 2010. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2011; 68:669-88.
2. ASHP Statement on Bar-Code-Enabled Medication Administration Technology. Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2009;66(6):588 -590.
3. Lawton G, Shields A. Bar-code verification of medication administration in a small hospital.  Am J Health-Syst Pharm. 2005;62(22):2413 -2415.
4. Larrabee S, Brown M. Recognizing the institutional benefits of bar-code point-of-care technology. Jt Comm J Qual Saf. 2003;29(7):345-353.
   5. Poon EG, Keohane CA, Yoon CS, et al. Effect of Bar-Code Technology on the Safety of Medication Administration. N Engl J Med. 2010;262:1698-1707
5. Maviglia SM, Yoo JY, Franz C, et al. Cost-Benefit Analysis of a Hospital Pharmacy Bar Code Solution. Arch Intern Med. 2007;167(8):788-794.

This is the short link.